A Tear in Time
by oni-neko ninja
Summary: 10-year-old Alphonse Elric has been thrown back in time. Avoiding ripping holes in the timeline should be easy for a young alchemist like him... but what happens when he meets the man who will become his father, and the creature that started it all? Greed/Alphonse in later chapters; rating may change depending on some (as of yet undetermined) factors.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Neither my friend nor I own anything official related to **FullMetal Alchemist** and/or **FMA: Brotherhood**. The idea behind this story, however, does belong to us.

This story is a collab between myself and a close friend of mine (who doesn't have an account on here); and it's the start to a (hopefully) big story that we've been working on, on and off. At the moment, I have no idea how many chapters this will actually be by the time it's finished xD;;

And yes, the main pair _is_ set to be Greed/Al (the pair simply doesn't get enough love in my opinion)... that won't happen right away, though. But if you don't like that kind of thing, then don't read this story. There's your warning! xD;

Also; I apologize in advance if this seems a bit rushed. I tried to slow it down, but it didn't flow as well, so.

Anyway, on with the story!

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Prologue

Resembool, Year 1910

It was the night the Elric brothers decided to try to revive their mother. It was raining hard. Everything was going as planned... until the light from the transmutation changed color, from a bright blue to an ominous purple. Neither boy knew what was going to happen until it was already too late.

From Edward's perspective, Alphonse faded away right before his eyes as the Gate swallowed him whole. At the same time, Edward lost his left leg from just above the knee, down. He knocked the suit of armor down, causing the helmet to fall off in the process. Then he drew a blood seal on the inside of the back of the neck, as well as on his own arms and chest.

"Take my arm, or my leg. Take my heart, I don't care — just give him back! He's my little brother!" Edward screamed as this transmutation lit up the room just like the last one had.

Nothing would come of it, though... but he wouldn't know that. Very soon after his arm was taken by the Gate, the boy passed out from the pain of losing two limbs.

Little did Edward know, there was a figure lurking in the shadows the entire time... Said figure turned out to be a young man who revealed himself only after he was absolutely sure that Edward was out cold. The first thing he did was check the boy's vitals. Once that was done, the young man went to the fallen suit of armor, crouching where Edward had previously been kneeling, and the light of a transmutation glowed from the blood seal Edward had drawn earlier.

A moment passed, then the suit burst into life.

"Brother?!" The voice sounded similar enough to Alphonse's, even with the metallic twang of the echo from within the armor, that the young man assumed no one would be able to tell the difference between this replacement and the genuine article. The armor scrambled up and pulled its helmet on before looking at the young man. "Are you sure about this...?"

The reply was a single, firm nod.

"...alright..." The armor looked unsure for a moment longer before shaking its helmet in a brief "no" motion, as though to clear its mind, and looking towards the unconscious Edward. "Oh no! Brother!" It panicked upon seeing Edward missing limbs... it carefully lifted the bleeding boy, holding him close to its chest plate protectively, and hurried from the house — no doubt heading straight for the Rockbell residence for help.

The young man who'd brought the armor to life stood up straight once it was gone and turned on the spot to observe the damage done to the study. Books were strewn about everywhere... the _thing_ the boys had tried to bring to life lay dead in the middle of the room. There was blood everywhere, and the sheer amount of energy from the first transmutation had broken at least one of the room's windows.

"...I can finally attempt to pick up where I left off..." He picked up a few of the fallen books, looking over them quickly for damage before putting them down on the desk. "I remember when Hohenheim got these..." He shook his head at that to clear his thoughts. "...but I can't get too caught up now. I need to get out of here before someone comes to scope out the scene."

With that, he left the house and the small town entirely... hoping that no one had seen him.

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...and there you have it. First story-related thing I've posted in quite awhile — reviews/criticism are welcome!


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Neither my friend nor I own anything official related to **FullMetal Alchemist** and/or **FMA: Brotherhood**. The idea behind this story, however, does belong to us.

Sorry it took so long to get this up... school happened, so inspiration kinda came & went, but the summer's pretty much beginning, which means more time to write! :)

Anyway~...

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Chapter One

The Capital City of Xerxes, Year 1500

The last thing Alphonse remembered was being pulled away from his brother and into the Gate... When he woke up, the first thing he noticed was that wherever he was, it was warmer than home would be.

' _This doesn't look like Resembool... where am I?_ ' He looked around, exhausted and confused, to discover that he was in the alleyway of a city.

It didn't take the ten-year-old long to notice that everyone he saw pass by the alleyway had blond hair...

' _And golden eyes?_ ' "Just like Brother!" he exclaimed to himself. His eyes were wide in surprise and awe at the fact that there were more people like him and Edward... wait a minute. "Golden hair and eyes..." ' _But that can't be! How could I be in Xerxes...? It disappeared four hundred years ago... didn't it...?_ '

But he had no time to mull that over, because his body decided then that food was in order... the only problem was, what, and where he might get some. He'd always been better at reading the ancient language than speaking it aloud... so this had potential to be difficult. His stomach growled again, more loudly than the last time, and he decided to work on that problem after figuring out his current predicament.

He left the alleyway and looked around, while wracking his brain on whether his dad's notes had included words for foods... soon enough, he recalled, they hadn't. Only a few things he'd read had not been related to geography and multiple sciences. And to make matters worse, he had no idea of the currency here.

Alphonse found himself on a market street after wandering for a little while, and looked around, trying to gain his bearings. He could figure out some of the kinds of foods there were, as they looked sort of familiar to him, but others puzzled him. He made a mental note to figure those out eventually.

Apparently, he'd been standing still, staring at a food stall for longer than he'd thought, because at a point, a man came up to him and offered him an apple.

"Are you hungry?" was what he asked in the local language, although his voice initially startled Alphonse.

He looked up at the man, and froze in shock. ' _Dad?!_ ' He couldn't help but stare for a minute before forcing himself to focus on what had been said instead of the face looking down at him.

"...uh..." He had to take a moment to search for the right words to translate. "...y-yes... t-thank you." Gate, he hoped he wasn't mispronouncing anything...

The man put the apple in his hand with a smile.

Alphonse was inwardly happily surprised that apples could be found in such a place as this. He smiled up at the man in thanks again, then rubbed the fruit on his shirt and took a bite. ' _I guess I didn't mispronounce anything there after all... thank goodness. I don't want to make a bad impression, considering I don't know how life goes here..._ ' He moved to the side of the road, wanting to get out of the way, until he realized again just _who_ had given him the fruit. He stopped mid-bite and looked around. The man was walking away!

"Wait!" Alphonse called in his still-rusty Xerxian, turning to follow the man.

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Sorry if it seems rushed like the last chapter. Hopefully we'll manage to put longer chapters together in the future xD;

Reviews/criticism are welcome.


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